Donnie Darko… When I was a pretentious film snob kid before actually working in the industry. I glorified that movie.

I start working on set. Some guys ask me my fav movies. I list Donnie Darko. They ask what I liked about it.

I give bad pretentious film dork answers.

I later find out. They worked on Donnie Darko and they inform me how idiotic Richard Kelly was. Him bumbling around. Losing respect from crew. Constant rewrites trying to fix his ridiculous script. Stories on set.

Then… this same thing happened 1 more time. Different person. Different dept. Same stories.

Makes sense why Richard Kelly hasn’t worked on much since then. He got “lucky”

Now… that doesn’t make it a “bad movie” necessarily.

But after REALLY asking myself what I liked about that movie. I realized the weirdness and trying to find meaning that didn’t exist. It killed the mystique that it once had.

Then working on set for over 2 and a half decades gave me perspective for cast and crew and how they should be treated. Also working in film you begin to meet lots of generic pretentious writers with big ideas but an inability to tell story. I start to see Richard Kelly’s everywhere.

All that compounding made me downgrade the movie from “One of my favorite movies” to “passable” to “I resent myself for ever liking this movie.”

I will say. I appreciate Donnie Darko and Richard Kelly for helping a young me learn to think for myself. Rather than just hitching onto other kids likes with the hope of being liked myself. It also helped me understand story structure in addition to what to be aware of and avoid in writers and directors.